There were police officers from South Pasadena Police Department, Alhambra and San Marino Police Departments, including the South Pasadena Police Chief Arthur Miller on campus at South Pasadena High School on first day back to school Thursday, August 21, 2014, where a 16- and 17-year-old boy allegedly planned a mass shooting to kill as many teachers and students. The District Attorney. has charged both boys with one count of making criminal threats. The District Attorney has not charged the teens for conspiracy to commit a*mass shooting* just a shooting.(Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News)

South Pasadena Police Chief Arthur Miller, left with two of his officers on South Pasadena High School campus. South Pasadena High School first day back to school Thursday, August 21, 2014, where a 16- and 17-year-old boy allegedly planned a mass shooting to kill as many teachers and students. The District Attorney. has charged both boys with one count of making criminal threats. The District Attorney has not charged the teens for conspiracy to commit a*mass shooting* just a shooting.(Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News)

SOUTH PASADENA – A beefed-up police presence will be on display at South Pasadena schools when students begin the school year today — a response to what authorities say was a plot by two teenage boys to carry out a massacre at the city’s high school.

Security is usually stepped up on the first day of school, but this year it will be even more visible at all city schools, South Pasadena police Chief Art Miller said earlier this week. The South Pasadena Unified School District runs three elementary schools, one middle school and the high school where the alleged shooting plot was centered.

Although the threat has passed and the plotters are behind bars, “I’ve asked for off-duty officers to come in and work around the schools, conducting foot beats, driving their patrol cars,” Miller said Tuesday. “I want there to be a sense of safety in our community. I’m only doing this for the fact that I want people to feel very comfortable that they’re being properly secured.”

The two South Pasadena High School students accused of planning to carry out a “massacre” at the campus were each charged Wednesday with a single count of making criminal threats. The boys, aged 16 and 17, appeared in Pasadena Juvenile Court and denied the charge, which is the equivalent of a not- guilty plea in adult court.

The students were arrested Monday following a four-day investigation that began with a tip from a resident who contacted school officials, who in turn notified police. Their names were not released due to their ages.

According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, the two teens were talking about carrying out a mass shooting at the school and allegedly shared their plans with another teen. On Saturday, the students allegedly threatened to kill the third teen.

Miller said the plot was in its infancy, with no date set for the attack and no weapons in the boys’ possession. But he said the two went to great lengths to research weaponry and tactics online.

“In our opinion, it was very viable what they were plotting,” Miller said. “They were making a huge plan of a school massacre that identified three staff members at the school by name that they were targeting, along with some random students, as they called it. They just wanted to, as they put it, they just wanted to kill as many people as possible.”

Miller declined to discuss a possible motive.

The chief said the FBI was assisting investigators, primarily by doing forensic work on the suspects’ computers. He said investigators had been monitoring the students’ activity on social media, and that monitoring bolstered their belief the plot was viable.

“They (the FBI) will offer some guidance on how the investigation should proceed because there was some talk within the chatter on the Internet about making explosive devices, bombs and what not,” Miller said.

Miller said that while no weapons were found in their possession, the suspects had discussed having access to a weapon owned by a relative of one of them. He added that the students had done extensive research on how to carry out an attack.

“They had researched weaponry, how to make explosives, how to disarm people,” he said. “They were researching tactical elements on how to go in and be the aggressor with firearms.”

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